I have not been much of a participant in any of the discussion topics.
However, I am very much an advocate of Crew Resources Management. CRM is
a very vital part of "flying an airplane".
As a "Senior" flight attendant, I once was put into an emergency
situation, where the main landing gear did not give two green lights, in
the cockpit. Just as most flight attendants have no idea what goes on
in the cockpit under such circumstances, the pilots have no idea what
goes on in the cabin during such times.
The outcome of this situation could have been catastrophic had this
particular captain been relating this vital information to a flight
attendant with a subservient personality.
I have occupied the position of team leader on a number of different
aircraft certifications. My experience has taught me that "role
playing" is a proven success. The "captains of all captains"
seen to loose some of their attitudes and realize that it takes more
than one person to fly an injured aircraft, work the radios, read the
checklist, brief the passengers on emergency procedures, and evacuate
the aircraft. It's a TEAM effort, not a one man show, regardless of the
amount of experience that any one crew member has.
Regards,
Kim Elliott
-----Original Message-----
From: Jean LaRoche [mailto:info_at_aero.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 1998 7:28 PM
To: CRM-Devel
Subject: About role playing in CRM training
Dear Pam,
I hate to be discordant but then, that's the whole point of having a
public forum about something.
We don't share your -and others- enthusiasm about role playing simply
because we feel it doesn't simulate the operational stress even the
easiest flight imposes on crews. Pilots are not actors and we found role
playing in front of peers to be far less valuable than building
operational stress in a controlled, culture-free environment. Over the
years, we ended up with a different method for evaluating routine, non
catastrophic interactions of flight crews but under a great deal of the
same kind of stress they deal with in the real world.
The CRM facilitators using our concept can still run it before an
audience, it doesn't matter. Role play can still be assigned to
candidates but our aviation-free cockpit provides the vehicle for crews
to develop realistic behavioral styles and skills while working out ways
of maximizing their team results under high operational stress. As CRM
facilitators gain confidence in the concept, they assign less and less
roles and just let the true personalities surface, bringing up real
issues.
Training in this environment is far more stressful than traditional role
play. The workload is repeatedly compared to flying an airline jet in
bad
weather. The cognitive and social demands are not unlike those in flying
an airplane and it is not uncommon for two candidates to drop their mask
and become "themselves" for better or worse! To earn a high overall team
score, competitive, egotistic, authoritarian attitudes must give way to
efficient CRM. And, of course, when remedial training is called for, it
can be conducted with no audience.
Our intentional culture-free design offers a non-threatening environment
to crews when facing remedial team-behavioral training since "cockpit"
language is avoided by facilitators. We found the transfer of learning
to
be very direct "training --> cockpit" and crews far more receptive to
facilitators' input than in traditional LOFT's. As mentioned in a
previous message, the facilitators can match flight crews with
non-flying
colleagues such as air traffic controllers, airline dispatchers or
flight
attendants, making each session a multidisciplinary
communication-oriented training.
Jean LaRoche
Aero Innovation
Montreal
>Jens:
>
>I like your role-play scenario for the F/As and pilots very much.
Having
>separate groups work individually by reading through a written scenario
or by
>just watching a video is not enough (too passive). Having them enact a
>realistic event helps everyone to understand where everyone else is
coming
>from. As a fellow psychologist, I think role-playing is an
under-utilized
>tool. Even though many people hate doing it, and feel self-conscious
about
>it, it never ceases to surprise me how much valid, useful material
comes out
>of it.
>
>Pam Munro
>Rivier College
>Nashua, NH